"We are very grateful that the creation of Atelieretaguardia remains in the. Museo Universidad de Navarra". This was stated by Rebecca Mutell, on behalf of the group of photographers from Barcelona, who recently donated 249 pieces to the Museum's photographic collection.

These statements were made during the conference"The heliographic memory: contemporary photography and historical technology", given at the School of Architecture by Rebecca Mutell and Martí Llorens, founding members of Atelieretaguardia, a group of contemporary photographers from Barcelona dedicated to the study and artistic practice with ancient techniques.

During the session, some photographs from the recent donation were projected, as well as the 11 negatives that make up Estratos, a work by Martí Llorens for "Tender Puentes", a curatorial program promoted by Museo Universidad de Navarra since 2002.

At Strata the artist photographs the castle of Montjuïc in Barcelona with the technique of waxed paper negative, as the primitive French photographer Gustave Le Gray did in 1851.

During Rebecca Mutell's speech, she emphasized that the donation corresponds to the pieces made collectively by Atelieretaguardia, since all the donated projects are, in this sense, a reflection on the creative process of photography with old techniques, especially wet collodion, which always requires teamwork, not the work of a lone artist.

Both made a tour of primitive photography, its techniques and authors such as Niépce, Daguerre or Talbot, in the beginnings of photography in the mid-nineteenth century. At the same time they showed works and contemporary artists who recreate and use those same resources today. These pioneers succeeded in creating the first natural representations through the daguerreotype technique, which consisted of exposing copper plates coated with silver iodide to sunlight for a long period of time. According to Martí Llorens, the idea is to "recover photographic experiences that to a certain extent have been lost with the digitalization of photography".